IRGC Chief Praises Tehran Sarallah HQ For Maintaining Security
The commander of Revolutionary Guard Hossein Salami
The commander of Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) has praised the role of Sarallah (Sar-Allah) Headquarters in Tehran in Iran’s security, saying it plays a major role in defeating plots by “the enemy”.
Hossein Salami made the remarks on Monday in a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the order to establish Sarallah HQ, which is officially under the direct command of the IRGC's commander in chief, but he delegates his authority to a deputy commander.
The enemies have realized that the decline in their power originates from this place, and therefore Tehran is where all the enmities and conspiracies against the country converge and thwarted, he said.
Tehran is a city with global influences, whose insightful residents have overcome hardships with the power of faith and tolerance, Salami added.
Considered the most important IRGC ground force, Sarallah is tasked with keeping the capital secure and protecting key institutions and the offices of the government. Its undeclared mission is suppressing dissent and protests as they did heavy-handedly during the popular protests in the past few years.
Salami’s remarks come while the former de facto commander of the Sarallah HQ, Mohammad Esmail Kosari, who now represents Tehran at the parliament, is pushing to ease the use of firearms by different security forces against civilians amid recurring protests.
"In every country and human society, the security of the security forces and the police is a priority, followed by the security of the society. They have a duty to establish security in society, therefore they need to use firearms to maintain that security," Kosari said on Monday.
Iraj Fazel, head of the Iranian association of surgeons, has called on the judiciary not to sanction the amputation of fingers to punish thieves.
In a letter to the chief justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei released to the media Sunday, Fazel called the practice "worrying and horrifying" and said it would create “a wave of hatred and disgust in the world.”
Eight men convicted of theft are at imminent risk of having their fingers cut off, according to the Abdorrahman Boroumand Center for Human Rights in Iran (ABC) and Amnesty International.
Three of them, who have waited five years for their sentence to be implemented, have been transferred from Orumiyeh prison in the north-western province of West Azarbaijan to Tehran for the amputation to take place.
"The international community can and should react urgently to stop the implementation of these amputations," Roya Boroumand, ABC executive director, said earlier in June. Amnesty condemned the move to “deliberately mutilate and traumatize prisoners through unspeakably cruel judicial corporal punishments.”
As strikes and protests continued in Iran’s retail and industrial sectorss on Sunday, a group of workers of Tehran’s transportation fleet held a protest rally for their demands.
The drivers and truckers gathered in front of the Roads and Transportation Organization in Tehran to protest the economic hardship they are going through.
Videos on social media showed them chanting slogans against the empty promises by the government and the crackdown by the security forces.
In May, the Union of Truckers and Drivers' Organization announced plans to hold a nationwide strike, saying holding protests for the realization of their demands are their inalienable right. The date of the strike is to be announced soon.
Sunday’s protest took place against the backdrop of shop owners’ strikes and pensioners' protests in many cities across the country, such as Kermanshah, Sari, Rasht, and several cities in the oil-rich Khuzestan province, including Ahvaz, Shush, and Shushtar.
Retirees took to the streets in many cities and towns on Sunday again to protest the meager rise in their pensions, which fails to compensate for the huge drop in their purchasing power given an inflation rate of over 40 percent. The current round of strikes and demonstrations began on Sunday, June 12, after Iran’s currency fell to a historic low of 333,000 rials to the US dollar.
Iranian newspapers Sunday marked the end of the first year since President Ebrahim Raisi's election on June 18, 2021 with harsh criticism of his economic team.
Nonetheless, some commentators including Reformist lawmaker Naser Ghavami said replacing current ministers with new ones cannot solve Iran's economic problems. He added that even the best economists cannot tackle the ongoing economic crisis because the underlying reason for problems is the political system itself.
Ghavami charged that the government has made Iran dependant on Russia and China, adding that the two countries simply follow their own interests.
Former lawmaker Mohammad Reza Khabbaz asked: "Do not these minister feel any shame even before their own conscience for accepting to be in charge of key ministries? On what basis has Raisi appointed them as ministers? And what do those who suggested these individuals think about the situation now?"
Khabbaz said that many more ministers from Raisi's cabinet need to go. Meanwhile, he called those ministers who promised to create one million jobs or build one million houses every year, "liars." He further asked: "Isn't what they have been doing a waste of the country's resources and the nation's dignity?"
Protests in Tehran Bazaar against a steep rise in prices. June 11, 2022
Columnist Mohammad Shadi wrote in a commentary in Jahan Sanat newspaper that his publication has been in the market for nearly two decades and it was evident for its journalists that Raisi's ministers were not fit for their jobs. Shadi opined that at least two more economic ministers should leave the government.
Shadi wrote that Iran needs to prove that its economic policies are consistent with international norms if it wishes to attract foreign investment.
The new reformist daily Arman Emrooz, not to be mistaken with the very similar looking Arman Melli, wrote that "during the past ten months since Raisi took office, he has issued a major directive every 9 days. However, 3 out of every 4 orders have been ignored by those who had to carry them out."
The daily added: "Out of 37 official orders issued by Raisi, 27 of them have not been carried out at all, 6 have been carried out and another 4 have been abandoned halfway through their implementation."
Meanwhile, Tahmoures Hoseini wrote in an article in Toseh Irani newspaper: "Because of the government's performance, the divide between the people and officials has increasingly widened in recent years. The current government blames its predecessors and the members of the previous government blame the way elections are held in Iran.
The daily wrote that the rise in the number of protests is another indication of the government's failure while it keeps blaming the United States. The daily quoted Former lawmaker Gholamreza Jafarzadeh Imanabadi: "I should say clearly that I doubt the honesty of Raisi's economic team. Raisi needs to reshuffle his government and try to meet the promises he made to the people for their votes."
Economist Albert Boghossian wrote in Setareh Sobh that most of the complaints about the government have something to do with Raisi's broken promises. Boghossian also added that neither Raisi nor his economic team can make any difference while the system does not allow for reforms.
Kazakhstan's president arrived in Iran June 19 at the head of a high-ranking delegation to hold talks with his counterpart Ebrahim Raisi on issues of mutual interest.
Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, who came to Iran at the invitation of his Iranian counterpart, was welcomed by Raisi at Saad Abad palace on Sunday, which follows several other foreign visits to Tehran in recent weeks in a what could be a determined effort to show that the Islamic |Republic is not isolated internationally.
Iran’s state media said that officials from the two countries signed nine Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) on transit and transportation, scientific and cultural exchanges, agriculture and other fields in a session overseen by the presidents.
The Raisi administration has promulgated once and again that its foreign policy is focused on expanding relations with neighbors, a policy hailed by the Supreme Leader.
A physician who reportedly refused to cooperate in an alleged coverup following a deadly building collapse that killed scores of people in southwestern Iran has died mysteriously.
When a newly built high-rise building collapsed in the south-western city of Abadan on May 22, authorities first announced the arrest of its owner, but a day later they claimed he had died in the incident. The public did not believe the claim and many said that he escaped and corrupt officials who had allowed to him to violate building regulations, wanted him to disappear.
Officials reportedly introduced a badly mingled body to a local hospital demanding that Dr. Payvand Allameh pronounce the dead person as the owner of the building, but he refused to do that finding no conclusive evidence.
A month after the incident, Allameh died instantly after falling from the balcony of his eighth-floor apartment, raising fresh suspicions about foul play.
The head of Abadan University of Medical Sciences, Mohammad Mohammadi, said on Friday night that his death is being investigated, while some news agencies in Iran reported suicide as the cause of his death.
